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16 April 2012

Our Secret Nation #nlpoli

The title is Don’t tell the Newfoundlanders: the true story of Newfoundland’s Confederation with Canada.

It is non-fiction.

Well, supposedly it is non-fiction.

That’s because any book or article with the “true story” in the title is pretty much guaranteed to be full of plenty of popular myths, fairy tales, folklore and just plain old bullshit.

The likelihood of getting the untrue story from any “true story” goes off the dial when the book is about Confederation. You see, since 1949, Newfoundland has had a thriving conspiracy industry centred on Confederation. It rivals any of the grassy knoll, Area 51 stuff in the United States on any level.

And when you dig a little deeper you know you are going to get the real story that is as authentic as you might expect from an ersatz Barbara Frum.

Last year, Mary Walsh interviewed Greg about his book when she filled in at The Current. That’s a link to the audio and appropriately enough Greg follows on a discussion of humour in politics. The blurb describes Greg’s book this way:

And he has uncovered what he says was a conspiracy to make sure Newfoundlanders did join Canada.

And it really is the same… old… schtick. Malone credits the late Jim Halley as one of his inspirations for digging into Confederation. With that starting point, you can be pretty much assured of what is coming.

Malone doesn’t disappoint on that front. Malone talks With Walsh about some Canadians lusting after iron ore and hydro-electricity in Labrador, the British/Canadian war debt written off against Confederation and all the rest of the stories that have been swirling around since the late 1940s.

There doesn’t look to be a fact, detail or argument from Malone you can’t find somewhere else. And, inevitably, there are likely plenty of details Malone just never considered because they didn’t fit into his world view.